The FULL Story of Flying Scotsman's USA Tour (1969-1973) 

Hard to believe that the Flying Scotsman is 100 years old this year. RIP Alan Pegler (1920-2012)

100 years later and Flying Scotsman is still going strong.

When your channel got taken down, this was the first video I thought of. This is still the greatest single contribution to the history of Scotty’s USA tour that I’ve come across anyway and it bridged a lot of gaps I wasn’t able to close myself. It also made me change my opinion of Pegler from purely reckless to a man whose love for that engine ran so deep that even impending bankruptcy didn’t dampen his spirits. In that regard, I can’t say I’m any different. How many people can say they drove the most famous locomotive across America basically because they could? Couldn’t have said it better Tug, we need more Alan Peglers in this world.

Even after 100 years after being built in Doncaster, Flying Scotsman is still going strong on the rails of the UK.

Shout outs to the Reporter that got bribed with some Whiskey, his Alchoholism saved the Flying Scotsman from Debt Collectors

37:28 There's just something so surreal about seeing the Flying Scotsman right next to some Santa Fe diesels. It's like two entirely separate worlds colliding with one another. Such an awesome photo.

I would love to see more history videos like this and "The Voyage of the Eppleton Hall." They are very well made, just like your other videos. Alan Pegler certainly meant well, but boy did he get in over his head. I, personally, hold no ill will towards him. The story of Flying Scotsman's USA tour could have ended very poorly, and in a sense, it did. But the love and adoration for this engine by so many managed to get her home. And the images we got if her in the United States are so surreal.

While it was ill-fated, the story of Flying Scotsman's USA tour is still fascinating and its consist feels like a British version of the later American Freedom Train a few years after the tour. And it was unique that the most famous British steam engine himself is displayed alongside other North American engines like the Turbo train, F3 and F7 Diesels, the GG1s and even Southern 4501 (some of which I've seen from I Love Toy Trains).

4:29 bro the amount of adjectives used to describe the diesels is 💀💀💀💀💀

Earlier this month, I was at Fisherman’s Wharf during my Spring Break at the beginning of the month. And I managed to find the spot where she was during British Week of San Francisco. I found the gate she went through when she first arrived at San Francisco and the parking lot where she was displayed at. I took some pictures of the place. I thought that you should know. I wish I could show you the photos I took.

You know, watching footage of the "Farewell Alan Pegler" tour, I kinda think of it as a fitting moment of coming Full Circle, with Pegler's first and last journey's on Scotsman in the same condition it was, in BR Brunswick Green.

I don't like the fact that Flying Scotsman was lost in America and was extremely close to getting scrapped, but it was very fascinating hearing about Flying Scotsman's USA Tour.

This powerful steam locomotive is exactly 100 years old no joke!

What do you mean there isn't a cinematic movie about this tour?! Come on all you big studios! Get on that!

The original version of this video is what introduced me to your channel, and I'm so glad it did. I thought I knew a ton about railroad history, but this one was complete news to me first time I watched it. Thanks for sharing the amazing story of a beautiful locomotive.

I never get bored of this documentary

Nothing is more weird as the fact that the "Flying Scoatsman " now 100 years old.

The fact that British Railways wanted to scrap shuch an iconic engine just shows that people like Dr beaching dont have a heart its such a shame so many engines where scrapped. I live near a disused railway all thats left is an embankment but now the towns that it connected desperately need a railway connection its sooooo sad eaven the 'skem jazzer' the Nickname for the little Huges rail motors were all scrapped its so sad and heartbreaking to see the embankment and imagine a glorious engine steaming past once again 😔💔💔💔

I love this video so much!! So glad to see it back up, I’ve actually been writing a script for a class based on this tour and this video has really been helping me with the research and events that happened, thanks Tug!!

This is the video that got me interested in trains and the history of rail travel. The TTTE fandom has some really good stuff, but the actual history feels more concrete to me, and you've done a good job telling as complete of a story as you could. I'm really glad this video is back.

Nice to see this back UnluckyTug, I miss seeing this video so much as you did a nice job on it back on April 23 of 2021, I am very proud of you as I am also making a Flying Scotsman USA Tour movie in my Thomas series. 😍

Ah yes, my all time favorite video on your channel has returned, I'm so glad you didn't lose this production. 23:22 23:21 17:14

I can't believe that my Grandmother was in America when the Flying Scotsman was doing it's USA tour

got recommended this the day after she hit another train

There are many reasons why The Flying Scotsman has gone down in history as one of the most famous vehicles of all time. Godspeed Flying Scotsman, and R.I.P. Alan Pegler 🙏

Honestly, this tour is probably why Flying Scotsman is worldwide famous. Sure, it would undoubtably be the most famous british steam engine, but it wouldn’t be nearly as well known if it hadn’t toured the States. Also, it’s so beautiful seeing a pacific like Scotsman get to stretch its wheels on the long-distance main lines we have here in America.

I was worried about this video the most when your channel got terminated. Easily one of my favorites of yours. Thank you so much for making it

Thank you very much for posting this. My mother and I were in England in 1968 and got to see Flying Scotsman there. We didn't get to see her when she came to stop in Houston, but here's something you might not know about. The night the Flying Scotsman left Houston, it wasn't with her train, or under her own steam. We pulled up to the trail crossing on Westheimer Road, on the southwest side of Houston, and to our surprise, Flying Scotsman one or both of her tenders went by, loaded onto flat cars. It must have been between nine and midnight. The tracks were Santa Fe and Southern Pacific, at that time and went to San Antonio, Texas from that point. We never did find out what happened or why the Flying Scotsman would have left Houston in the middle of the night and on a flat car. Please do drop me a note if you find out how or why it happened that way, okay? Thank you.

Glad to see this video back up. One of my favorites from this channel.

Another day of rewatching every The Unlucky Tug video as he reuploads them. A very nice trip down memory lane!!

This was the video I was most looking forward to you re-uploading. This and your Eppleton Hall video are your greatest works.

I lived in Anniston. Alabama, when the 3 engines met there. It was a big deal and everyone in Anniston came out to see them. I have some pictures I took there. My husband was stationed overseas then and was so disappointed he couldn't be there.

34:00 my guess is that one breakcoach was sold off for money for the run to San Francisco.

It’s crazy it’s over 100 now

Glad this video was brought back. I'd still love to see you tackle more documentaries like this at some point. (Once you're back on your feet with everything else.)

I really enjoy the Flying Scotsman tour of the USA. What inspiration!

So happy to have this video back very interesting and informative. Before I saw the original video I only knew bits and pieces of Scotsman’s USA tour.

Glad it's all coming back one video at a time :)

It would be great to hear you cover the Australia trip sometime. 3801 is a beloved icon and the Scotsman’s tour here is greatly revered (she’s been to my local station!)

We met 4472 when she was in Australia in 1988. We took part in a parallel run into Sydney between 4472 and New South Wales’s prime locomotive 3801. That was a thrilling experience which I still have on film on RU-vid. It is entitled LNER FLYING SCOTSMAN 4472 ON ITS AUSTRALIAN TOUR 1988. Graham Wilcox

Love this video so much, I learned a lot and it made me even more passionate about locomotive and railway history, and as a result I’ve come to love doing research about the countless locomotives in America and Britain. Thanks Tug, from all of his rail fans and especially Scotsman fans, this video rules

So happy your putting these back up. This was one of the vids I was going to miss the most after the takedown

5:49 me and my school actually worked with the royal Shakespeare company in 2024 to put on a performance of the Shakespeare play 12th night at the hall for Cornwall and I was on stage there performing. It was a performance I will never ever forget because that inspired me to take acting seriously and start to thinking about carriers in acting so if I work with them when I do work experience in year 10, I will mention that they were a part of the flying Scotsman’s tour of the United States

Thanks for making this video, Tug! My favorite ever! Very informative, entertaining, and relaxing

My favorite video you’ve made. Glad to see it’s back.

I actually live in Hamilton Ontario and have been to James street many times. That train station sitting underneath has since been Closed for many years and is now used for weddings and parties! Very cool how they flying scotsman visited it!

Great documentary on such an interesting and important event in railway history, while I didn’t much care for real-life railways and their history back then, this video really enticed me, and it’s a really exciting journey throughout, it feels less like a documentary and more that you’re telling a story about this powerful steam engine that saw it through till the end, and I love that

Man, i still love this video, and all the work you put into it

I said this before in the Magic Railroad review, but I strongly believe that Thomas’ first movie should’ve been based on this. This has got to be the most epic train story of all time. As for the villain, make it an Alfred E. Perlman-esque character who’s seriously anti-preservation.

The triumphant return of my favorite RU-vid video of all time!

That was a great documentary.

Would love a video on the Austrialia tour with Scotsman

I praise Alan Peglar for saving Flying Scotsman from scrap in the first place but I also praise William McAlpine from bringing her back home.

Hey mate I know you’re only re uploading videos atm but once you’re making new videos again do you think you could maybe make a video on Flying Scotsman’s Australian tour maybe please

I hope your old channel cones back. You are my favourite

Literally watching this while riding on the scotsmans 100 year trip

This video is really interesting! Your right the this is one of the most fasinateing stories in railway history.This video is amazing! Hope you have a great day!

A few days ago I lucky enough to see the Flying Scotsman travel along the East Lancaster Railway track ( a preserved railway in the North West of England that travels between Bury and Rawtenstall) as I live with in walking distance from it. I even talked to a few other people there about this very video. I am so happy that it's back as would say that it was a definitive history of what happened to the Flying Scotsman when it was in America.

This was the video that I discovered your first channel with. It only seems fitting that it’d be the first one I watched post-reboot announcement

My favorite of all the documentaries from you. ^^ Can’t wait to see the revival of Eppleton Hall and your eventual Hercules video.

Flying Scotsman was in North America during a very interesting and timultuous time for Railroads in the States. There was also some civil unrest in Quebec, which would likely explain why she never visited Waddon and Dominion of Canada at Exporail. It apparantly had rocks thrown at it there as well suffering a bad dent and a broken window on a coach. One of the crew members was beaten up too I think on his way to a hotel. When they came to Chicago they took the (now mostly abandoned) Wabash Railroad from Decatur(pronounced deee-kay--ter not deck-uh-tur) and Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad(CWI) to Dearborn Station. The CWI operated Dearborn Station for the Wabash, Grand Trunk, Santa Fe, and 2 other railroads and served as the parent railroads' route into downtown Chicago. Right around the time when Scotsman was in Boston doing test runs, a tragic saga in rail preservation was just beginning here in Chicago. 2 famous American excursion locomotives that had now been sold into preservation for use on excursions were being stored in the CWI roundhouse at 47th street(an intermodal yard is there now). The CWI was struggling, passenger rail was struggling. Amtrak would soon be formed while Scotsman was still in the states. Dearborn Station would be closed and partially demolished within a few years of Scotsman's visit. Anyway the CWI decided to evict the owner of the steam locomotives and in November of 1969 they towed the partially dismantled locomotives to the Belt Railway of Chicago's(BRC) 87th street yard. They sat there for a few weeks and then a BRC locomotive hauled them to a nearby scrapyard. The BRC was like the freight corporate sibling to the CWI and they still exist today(the BRC). Anyway by the time Scotsman got to Chicago and hopped on the CWI at 74th street junction, these two preserved steam locomotives were just 1 mile down the line languishing in that scrapyard. Unfortunetly 5632 the bigger and more famous of the 2 would be scrapped after derailing inside of the scrapyard in 1972. The other one was eventually rescued in the early 90s. Its crazy to think that switcher that was pictured piloting Scotsman at Dearborn may have been the same one to haul 5632 and 4963 to scrap just 8 months or so beforehand. That same diesel is pictured pulling another locomotive (GTW 5629) that would eventually be scrapped by Metra in the 80s out of the same roundhouse for a test run in 1968. The CWI was in a bad state by the late 60s. They didn't have much terminal work to do and they were no longer running commuter trains. Most of their fleet of diesels was out of service by this point and they were being sold for scrap too, being just barely 20 years old. When Amtrak was formed in 1971, they moved all intercity trains to the adjacent Chicago Union Station which was a nail in the coffin for the CWI.The one steam locomotive to survive that debacle was finally saved in 1993 and the CWI ceased to exist as a corporate intity in 1994.

This is my favorite Unlucky Tug video. I watched it with my grandpa last November when we spent the morning together before I went to visit my friends for the weekend. Grandpa passed away in February.

100 miles, 100 years and 3 continents traveled truly the King of steam

I have seen this like 1 billion times and it aint gettin old any time soon!

One of my favorite Video's of yours.

I personally think that Flying Scotsman looks great with that front headlight in front of the funnel

Can’t wait to watch this again!

My favorite part is the hitchhikers. I want to be one

I loved these history of videos on the original channel and I’m happy to watch them again on the new channel to add my views back onto the video.

Unlucky tug: in a sea of smelly crocking diesels. Also Unlucky tug: *shows a picture the real life bear* 💀💀

Thats absolutely fascinating. A lot of things I didn't know. Thanks for sharing.

Tug, I know you said you didn't know about doing more of these - but I keep coming back to this - I think you could make theses as well as Defunctland... you already kind of did here, sir - Thank You! Happy 2024!

Yes! The Flying Scotsman video is back!

Once again, thank you for pronouncing "Lathrop" correctly!

I really wish there was a photo of Scotsman next to Union Pacific Big Boy 4014

What an amazing journey Flying Scotsman had! It's astounding how much history this machine has in her life!👍

Good luck getting the old channel fixed. Keep up the great work.

Flying Scotsman is a true legend.

Honestly I really loved this documentary. I was there when u originally posted it, and it's a shame you had to yeet the og channel. I honestly love your documentary vids. 10/10 vid

I watched the original and loved it and I’ll watch this again and love it This and the eppleton hall videos are amazing and you should feel proud of them

Well unlucky tug, this is one of my favourite video of yours

Flying Scotsman, still going strong after 100 years.

Best Engine in the world. Prove me wrong

This is the first video I ever watched from your channel. FYI, I'm using the events of this tour to make a jaw dropping alternate timeline factor in my Thomas Fan Series.

I look up to Alan I’m just like him I never give up on my dreams and my goals and I have a go get them attitude❤

Watching this again to try get you back in the algorithm. Sorry to hear of your channel getting nuked.

This was great thank you... yes the photos of US locos and stock juxtaposed with British... is, as you say, surreal. This wasn't the first time English trains ran on American metal (as I am sure you know). The "Royal Scot" went over in 1933, and "Coronation Scot" followed suit six years later. I think these two visits would make for an interesting video. Although I haven't seen much footage about either visits on RU-vid. I have that dvd box set. It is very well put together and presented. Great video thanks for preparing. it's nice to hear the story from an American perspective.

The last one of the LNER A1/A3 class.

I didn't know Scotsman came through my town of Belleville, Ontario. The more you know!

A wonderful tribute ❤

The Sprint to San Francisco section of the tour would make a good Road Movie. It has all the elements, a crazy dreamer, a race against time, bankruptcy, a jilted wife, an aging former icon going for one last show.

And Alan is a hero 🙌 👏

I’m so glad she was reunited with the UK

What a way to celebrate it's 100th anniversary.

I have mixed feelings about her USA Tour. Sure Flying Scotsman did almost get lost there, but it was interesting seeing it running abroad. Great video.

A missed opportunity of the North American tour, in my opinion, is Flying Scotsman would’ve met America’s most famous steam locomotive, Union Pacific 844, and the queen of steam herself, Norfolk and Western 611.

Help I’ve watched this so many times I’ve memorized the whole intro and outro.

I’m doing this thing where character AI bots follow Scotsman around America and this video is research to me. Thank you for reuploading this

It enrages me how RU-vid tore this guy's channel down without seeing the videos he made.

This is probably the most incredible adventure a locomotive has and will ever be on